Full disclosure, I've only participated in 4 half/full marathon events - Kansas City, St. Louis, Wichita, and now Champaign, but this was by far the best of any. Kudos to the race directors on such a high quality event!

For weeks leading up to the race, I was treated with interesting e-newsletters that included various pieces of information and got me re-excited on a weekly basis for the upcoming race. One newsletter even included a video of the course which I watched more times than I care to admit.

When we arrived at the expo, parking was simple and free, and the expo was very nice. Check-in and t-shirt pickup were easy. The booths were pretty standard with some decent SWAG. The gear for purchase was nice but the best designed merch was Run Illinois stuff instead of Illinois Marathon. I bought a nice Run Illinois beer glass but I wish it would have been the same design only specific to the Illinois Marathon (since I'm actually from Missouri).

The next morning (race day) again we found parking to be a breeze. We were there early enough that there was no lines for the bathrooms and even as people filled in, I was able to find a bathroom line only 4 deep. Gear check included giving your bag to volunteers loading trucks to be taken to the finish line (more on that later).

The most important aspect - the race - was such a good experience. The course was marked exceptionally well, including signs at every intersection and volunteers galore; there was zero chance of getting off course. The water/gatorade stations were well placed and there were plenty of them. Everyone was super helpful and friendly. The course itself is perfect for a BQ. Any hills are very subtle and never last long. Even the hill at mile 24 which is the only real hill in the entire race is over in roughly 1/4 mile and is followed by a nice downhill to finish off the race. All of the turns were reasonable; the only small quip I had was when you run through the park the trail weaves a bit making it a little more difficult but this is a very small complaint.

I'm not as concerned about the scenery as others as I spend most of my training on nice scenic trails, so running through a small downtown and neighborhoods is actually a nice change of pace for me. Some of the neighborhood homes architecture later in the race are very nice too.

The finish was amazing. Running onto the football field was much cooler than I thought it would be. First, stepping onto that rubber turf felt amazing after 26 miles of pounding concrete, haha. And coming out of the tunnel was pretty cool. And after the race, volunteers found me to hand me my prizes instead of me having to come to them. Speaking of...

The giveaways were great. A nice shirt, a medal, and a fleece blanket when doing the full. The post-race snacks included pizza, chocolate milk, water, gatorade, bananas, packaged beef jerky, some sort of pasta salad (and all of this was in the football field fan concourses, which were covered and warm, which felt great.)

Back to gear check - since they loaded the bags into those trucks, the gear was right there on the concourse waiting to be claimed. I've done races where I had to walk over 1/2 mile to get my gear so this was MUCH appreciated.

Honestly I skipped right past the post-race festivities. I was tired (set a 9 minute PR and BQ'd!) and wanted to get back to my hotel to shower before check out. It looked like everyone was having fun so I'm sure it was a good time.

I really enjoyed this race - a lot. And I'm writing this review unprompted and receiving no benefits to do so. If you're looking to BQ or just for a high quality spring race in the midwest, this is it.